


Calm Before the Storm

by tealeafling



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, Post-Episode 75, like mostly just hints at future angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 06:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14562657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealeafling/pseuds/tealeafling
Summary: Ben finds something important. Lily checks his research.





	Calm Before the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I wrote this after listening to episode 75, based on a theory that I personally believe: that "The One" that Debbie keeps mentioning is Ben. Pardon my uncreative title... hope you enjoy!
> 
> I might add on a second chapter if anyone wants, but if I do, it probably won't be for a few weeks (AP tests are hell and I guess I should study. thank god I'm a senior and I'll be DONE after this)

Lily Wright woke at 2:36 AM to the sound of banging on her motel room door.

Now, she _was_ often awake at that time anyway. Especially after the events of the previous May 1st, in which everything she had been denying since she’d arrived in King Falls was proved true and she had about three different existential crises. But this night just so happened to be one where she finally, _finally_ was able to drift off. All to be ruined by some _idiot_ knocking incessantly at her door.

She groaned and rolled out of bed, stomping over to the door. After fumbling with the lock in her still half-asleep state, she wrenched it open.

“What the _hell_ do you want?” She said in a half-yell, half-whisper. Sure, she was pissed off, but she’d rather not wake up and piss off any neighbors she might have too.

Then she blinked. Standing in front of her was a very disheveled-looking Ben Arnold, holding an equally disheveled-looking cardboard box.

He quickly stepped back from Lily’s enraged appearance. “Miss Wright! Sorry it’s so late—uh, early?” He grinned sheepishly, raising a hand to wave, before the box started slipping from his hands and he had to fumble to catch it.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds as they both just stared at each other. Then Ben spoke up. “Uh, I was wondering if I could ask you a few things.” He shook the box, something rattling around inside. “Also, show you a few things? Sorry, I know it’s probably a bad time, but it’s really important.”

_What could possibly be so important to wake me up at this ungodly hour?_ she thought, but then again, so much chaos had happened in the past few weeks. It probably was truly important, knowing how deep Ben was in whatever the hell was going on.

She quickly jerked her head in a nod. “Sure, whatever,” she said slowly. “Come in.”

Lily pointed at a chair at the small table in her room, signally for Ben to take a seat, before walking over to the cheap motel coffee maker.

“Want some?” she offered as she turned it on.

“Yes!” Ben said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. He plopped down tiredly in the chair, dropping the cardboard box on the table.

Unfortunately, the box had already been about to fall apart, and the short drop apparently severed whatever had been holding it together. Cassette tapes, many of them chipped or charred, scattered all over the floor.

Lily raised an eyebrow. “Ben Arnold, you do realize it is in fact the twenty-first century, right? We barely even use CDs anymore, let alone _cassette tapes.”_

Ben chuckled, leaning over to gather up the fallen tapes. “Aren’t you like a decade older than me? I think I’d know that better than you do.” Then he sighed. “Just... I’m here because I’ve been doing some research, and I—I think I found something. I’d really appreciate if you could just check me on this.”

Lily walked over to Ben with two coffee mugs, placing them on the table and sitting across from him. “Ben, why are you asking me about this?” She rubbed her eyes tiredly. “Why not go to Sammy, or that _friend_ of yours Emily?”

She knew that Emily was more than just his friend now, but so what if she wanted to poke a little fun at him. And it worked, as his face turned bright red.

“That’s—I... okay,” he stumbled. “No, I didn’t want to... I couldn’t bother them with this.” He hesitated for a second, before saying, “Lily, you’re an _amazing_ journalist, and I figured you could be objective about this. I know if I went to them, they would immediately say no to what I _need_ you to just confirm for me.”

Lily frowned, taking in his ruffled appearance again. “Wait, did you scavenge these tapes from the radio station? Isn’t it still locked down after that UFO—“

“That’s not important.” He continued shuffling around the tapes, looking at each label. “Do you see... wait, no, found it.” He picked up a tape and fished out a Walkman from his pocket, popping the selected tape in and fast forwarding for a few seconds. “Here, listen to this.”

Lily was barely able to notice a slight tremor in Ben’s hands as he passed off the tape player to her.

“Do you remember Debbie?” He asked as he passed her a pair of headphones. “She’s, uh, called in to the show a few times.”

Lily nodded. She had spent a while denying it, but she was now pretty convinced that Debbie was trapped wherever the hell Jack was. And if Ben was going to try to save them, save _him,_ well, then she was finally ready to help.

“Okay, well, there were a few times that she spoke to Sammy and I wasn’t there,” he told her. “So I decided to go back and find the ones that I missed, and... here, just listen.”

He had selected a specific sentence from the tape: it was just Debbie, saying, “You didn’t tell him, The One.”

Lily hit rewind, playing it again.

_You didn’t tell him, The One._

She glanced up at Ben, and now, there was fear apparent in his eyes. “And you think she’s talking about you?”

“I think so,” he said quietly. “She told Sammy to tell me not to save Emily, so it seems pretty likely.”

“Do you even have any idea what you’d have to do to stop this? Or what it might mean for you?”

He sat up, a determined look replacing the fear. “It doesn’t matter what it means for me. If I can somehow stop this, if I can save everyone, then I’ll figure it out somehow, but I _have_ to do it.”

Lily took a look at him again, so determined to do the right thing no matter what it cost him, and softened a bit. If she had to guess, he was, what, maybe in his mid-twenties? He was far too young for all this shit that was going on in this crazy town.

For a second she thought about what she had heard Sammy tell him on the phone, while he was running away from the rainbow lights. Leave town, be with Emily, have a good life and just forget about everything that had happened here. And Lily almost wanted to tell him that same thing.

But she had seen this kind of personality before, in her brother. She couldn’t stop Ben if he knew he could help people. And she had to admit, there was a little bit of selfishness in her that wanted him to save Jack, even if it cost him everything.

So she would have to be there to make sure it didn’t.

“I’m helping you with this,” she said, standing up. “There’s _no way_ you’re doing this on your own.”

Ben got up from his chair too. “I thought you might say that, honestly.” He smiled at her. “Thank you, Lily. But you know it’s going to be dangerous, right? There’s no guarantee—“

“Oh, I sure as hell know it’s going to be dangerous. And I know your tiny ass couldn’t handle this on your own. Which is why _you’re_ going to tell Sammy, Emily, Troy, and whoever else is involved in this what’s going on.” 

“Really?” he said... looking up at her, a few whole inches taller than him, despite his past claims that they were the same height. “People really don’t have to go after my height every chance they get. And yeah, I know, I was planning on telling them all later today.” He glanced out the window behind him, the world outside completely dark other than some light leaking from a few other rooms. “Once it’s actually day.”

“They’re not going to take it well.” She had seen how much they all cared about each other. Heard it, whenever she decided to tune into King Falls AM. 

“I know. But I can’t—“ His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “I could never do this without telling them first. Not after all that has happened, not after... what could have happened a few days ago.”

He didn’t have to say it for Lily to know what he was referring to: the Devil’s Doorway, the rainbow lights... Sammy _easily_ could have been gone without saying a word to anyone, and Ben couldn’t do that same thing to them.

No matter how hard it would be to convince the people he loved, Ben knew he _had_ to stop the void. No matter what it took.

Ben walked over to the motel room door, then looked back at the cassette tapes still spread all over the table. “Uh, since the box I brought those in broke... I’ll come back for them later?”

Lily laughed. “Sure thing,” she said, smiling, but then her smile. “I know this must all be really hard for you, Ben, hard on everyone. But I just want you to know you’re doing a great job dealing with—“

She was cut off as Ben ran over to her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“Thank you,” he mumbled into her shoulder. “I have _zero_ idea if everything will be okay, if it _ever_ will, but I’ll try, and I’m glad you’ll be there to help me.”

_God, there is so much of Jack in him._ She smiled ruefully. “Alright, kid, go home and get some rest. This is a hell of a lot of information to process, and you look like you need some sleep.” She looked again at the dust and ashes covering him, after his escapade into the ruins of the radio station. “And a shower.”

She needed her sleep, too, since she was probably going to have to deal with dad-mode Sammy Stevens in the morning.

_Jesus, it seems we’re really in the home stretch of this now,_ she thought as Ben left. Whatever happened in the next few days, they were closing in on some kind of ending. She wanted to be there, to help save her brother, the town, everyone, and damn if she wouldn't try to save Ben too.


End file.
